Plan to convert Stafford porn shop into church is cast out

12:57 AM,
Jan. 25, 2014

The Fantasy World Adult Superstore on East Bay Avenue in Stafford remains up for sale after local Christians were unable to raise the $275,000 asking price for the property, which the Rev. Patrick J. Sharkey had wanted to convert for use in his ministry, the Victory Christian Fellowship. The owners have since reduced the price to $225,000 and Sharkey is now an assistant pastor at the Church of Grace and Peace in Toms River.

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One thing is for certain, the desire of local Christians to convert a porn shop into a church was no doubt the most wholesome fantasy ever imagined at the adult book store in town.

In the end, the vision to convert the Fantasy World Adult Book Store on East Bay Avenue into a nondenominational, Christian-themed community center ran into the same issue that befalls most tentative real estate transactions: economics.

"We were extremely close to securing the financing," said the Rev. Patrick J. Sharkey, who is now an assistant pastor with the Church of Grace and Peace in Toms River. "We had a number ...